Improvement in iron bridges



UNITED STATES PATENT OIFFICEO SIMEON S. POST, OF JERSEY CITY, NEWJERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN IRON BRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,9l0, dated June 1G,1863.

To all whom t may concern Beit known that I, S. S. PosT, of Jersey City,county of Hudson, State of New Jersey, have invented a new and ImprovedMethod ot' Constructing-Iron Bridges; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full and exact description thereof, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference markedthereon.

The nature of my invention consists in constructing an iron bridge insuch a manner as that the expansion and contraction ot' thc materialwill not produce injurious effects upon the structure, and in this'manner obviating one ofthe most serious objections to the universal useot' such bridges.

To enable others skilled in the art to malie and use my invention, Iwill proceed to de-l scribe its construction more minutely.

Figure l shows a side elevation of two panels ot' one end of a truss orgirder. Fig. 2

shows a plan ot'the chord and its attachments.

v Fig. 3 shows an end View of a post with the Fig.

attachment of the chord and top plate. 4t shows a side view of a post.Fig. 5 shows a plan of the upper plate or chord used by me.

I fasten the pedestal A bymeans of suitable bolts to the masonry orproper abutment, which pedestal is made to receive the end post of thebridge, which post is rounded at the bottom, as shown at B, and held inthe pedestal (which has a lip, d) bythe bolt g, passing through` both,the pedestal and the slot-e in the chord F, to which chord I attach thebrace g', which is fastened with the strut or post H to the top chord orplate, J, by means of a bolt, k, passing through thcjoint box L, asshown in Fig. 5, k. The joint-box is used for the purpose ot connectingthe sections of the top chord or plate in such a manner that by passingthe bolt k through the struts and braces will allow both to revolve uponsaid bolt to an extent corresponding to the degree of the expansion orcontraction. The jointbox may be placed upon the struts, and the bracesg and hf maybe introduced, as shown in Fig. 3, at R, and the bolt 7cpassed through,

as shown in Fig. l at P, after which the sections of the plate or upperchord may be at tached to the boX by-bolts m m.

IIa-vi ng thus described my invention, what I claim, and for which Idesire to secure Letters Patent, is-

l. The jointbox connecting segments of the top chord or plate, and alsoreceivingthe heads ot' the posts or struts and braces, with the loosepin 7c passing through the whole.

' 2. A cylindricaljoint in the construction of a bridge, as shown at B,irrespective ot'its location, when used for the purpose of obviating thedangers of expansion and contraction.

. 3. The slotted chord, when used in c0nnection with the cylindricaljoint and for the same purposes.

4. The construction of the chord, when used in combination with thecylindiical joint, substantially as described and shown.

s. si. rosr.

Witnesses:

ANDREW J. PosT, 0. A. STEVENS.

